Called Out Through The Ages
by whisperwar
Summary: Sora is plagued by dreams of a world torn apart by war and discrimination, viewing the whole thing through the eyes of his almost-double, Roxas, a boy gifted with a great and mysterious power. Sora is forced to watch as the boy is ripped away from his lover, Axel. A lover who Sora could swear is following him.
1. I'm Dreaming

**A/N: **So, this is my first fanfic in years. I mean literal years. Coincidentally, I've had the majority of this first chapter written for well over a year now. I've never written a fanfic for this fandom before, but with the announcement of Kingdom Hearts III I decided hey, why not. So here I am.

A few points I feel I need to make: the majority of Final Fantasy VII characters that appear in this are their incarnations in the early parts of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I chose this route simply because I saw no reason as to why Cloud is so depressed in the Kingdom Hearts games. Aerith is alive and well and Zack appears to be alive and well. Their deaths were the main reasons for his breakdown in Advent Children. So here, we have a happy Cloud. And a nice Sephiroth.

On that note, there will be no OC's. Every character who appears will be from Disney or Squeenix.

**Warnings: **there will be character death, as is stated in the summary. However, we're setting out to fix that character death, so it's all good. There will be, however, implications of underage sex (consensual), abuse and violence towards women and minors, implications of suicide and suicidal thoughts and attempted sexual assault. However, I will make sure to tag these things in the chapters they appear in, as I really don't want to trigger anybody. Despite these warnings, this story WILL have a happy ending, as I need happy endings to breathe. (Characters may also be slightly OOC at times. I apologies greatly if that's the case.)

**Pairings: **So far, the only pairings that are set in stone are AxelRoxas, RikuSora, DemyxZexion and ZackAerith. There will be hints of other pairings, but none are definite. However, in the interest of keeping people informed, possible pairings are LeonCloud, SephirothCloud, TidusYuna, FangVanille, SeiferHayner, ZackAerithCloud or any others that I think just make sense. If there's a couple that you'd like to see get together before any other's, drop a line! I'm happy writing anything really, as I'm a huge multi-shipper.

**Rating: **for now, we're planted firmly in the **T **category, although that's liable to change. However, due to the strict guidelines laid down by the site, I will only be uploading scenes of a more... smutty nature, to an alternative site.

Welp! On with the story

* * *

Chapter One

"I'm Dreaming."

"_I'll be fine Axel. I promise. Just run."_

Sora Strife awoke with a sharp gasp, legs entangled in his baby blue cover. His skin was covered in a thin sheen of cold sweat, and he knew it was a ridiculous time in the morning.

He groaned as his suspicions were confirmed, eyes landing on his alarm clock. _5:30 AM. _The dull green glow of the numbers highlighted the rest of his nightstand, and he slumped back joyously in bed, an arm going up to cover his eyes.

'Same dream again,' he mused, knowing he wouldn't be getting any more sleep tonight. It might not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that he had school in the morning, but it was just his luck he guessed.

'But seriously, this has been going on for weeks now. Can't a guy catch a break?' He groaned as he rolled onto his stomach, burying his head in his soft pillow, mind flitting back to his dream, despite his protests.

Same small, desolate cottage; same smell of rotten meat and burning wood; same feel of callous, bare skin under his soft fingertips; same group of people.

But it was mainly those two teenagers; a lanky, attractive redhead, clutching his hands in desperation, even as a slightly shorter blond with a mullet attempted to drag him away and out of the back door, and Sora himself.

Only, of course, it wasn't Sora. _H_e was Roxas. The boy that looked almost identical to himself in every way, aside from a few minor details; golden blond hair that was windswept to the right, eyes that were a fierce, proud electric blue, rather than the gentle, smiling azure of his own, slightly pointier chin, maybe an inch or two shorter, _maybe_. It was hard to tell when everyone around him was quite a bit taller.

That was where the differences ended. And Sora only knew all of this as, every time he found himself in Roxas' body, the boy was staring at a mirror, face hard with a determination so deep that Sora felt it didn't belong on someone so young.

And then he would turn to face the trio behind him, who had somehow managed to all crush themselves into the tiny space, and he would say, in a young, strong voice, that anyone who cared to listen would know was laced with a resonating undertone of exhaustion, desperation and fear, all of which swirled around in his heart and guts, threatening to make him throw up, scream, sob about the unfairness of the life they were forced into, but he ignored it; "I'll hold them back."

And the others would freeze; the redhead- _Axel_ his mind cried- would flinch at the words, green eyes flashing with _something_ that both Roxas and Sora himself would refuse to dwell on; the blond with the mullet would tremble; the second shortest in stature, a teenager with slate hair that fell over one eye would clench his fists and bite his lower lip.

And nothing would happen until the redhead- _Axel for God's sake- _rushed forward, gathering the tiny blond into his arms, refusing to let go.

Then he would start yelling, and Roxas would say something, but Sora always forgot this part; all he knew were the emotions that bubbled through him, threatened to spill forth in a wave of tears, but the love was always there, always constant; brutal, honest and true, mingling with it all, keeping his resolve firm and strong.

Sora would always remember the final thing spoken before the mullet boy somehow managed to wrestle the much taller boy- _Axel, Sora, it's really not that hard- _away from the blond boy who was fighting back a panic attack; the look of defeat and horror that washed over the redhead's face- _for the love of- it's Axel!-_ at the small, beautiful smile that would grace the blond's lips as he said his final words to the group, to_ Axel, _"I'll be fine Axel. I promise. Just run."

And even though Sora had never dreamt past this part, he knew, without a flicker of doubt in any of his being, that Roxas was not fine.

Roxas had broken his promise.

And for some reason, this broke Sora a little every time.

He knew it was just a stupid dream- _vivid, brilliant, terrifying, morbid, depressing, __**real **__dream- _but he couldn't stop himself from feeling the pain that spiked through his entire body every time Roxas breathed those words across the small gap that separated him from the others.

Instead of thinking about it anymore and depressing himself, he sighed before pulling himself from his bed.

Might as well do something useful. His brother would be up to get ready for work in half an hour. He could make breakfast to help out.

As he made his to the kitchen, treading ever so carefully on the thick, mauve carpet in the hall so as not to wake Cloud any earlier than he needed to, Sora, despite his strongest desires, could not pull his thoughts from the dream of Roxas.

The fact that Sora had never in his life had recurring dreams was really not the weirdest thing about the strange predicament he found himself in; it felt like a memory, but not. It was too vivid to be a memory, almost like he was living in the moment, like he was really experiencing the events happening to the group of hapless teenagers. Obviously, this wasn't the case, but still…..

A frown graced his full lips as he turned on the cooker, ready to make a fry up or something, before remembering Cloud didn't really like eating too much so early in the morning, and instead flicked the oven back off, popping some bread into the toaster and making some coffee.

Now Sora, being the ball of hyper sunshine and light that he was, usually wasn't the type to drink coffee; he hated the taste, the smell and the extra amounts of energy he really could do without, but considering the fact that he hadn't had a full night's sleep in well over two weeks, he supposed he could forgive himself, and he pulled out his moogle print mug and Cloud's own chocobo print one, and set about making some coffee for them both.

His eyes stared sightlessly through the kettle, attention focused on the white tiles of the kitchen wall slightly beyond the steam that was slowly curling from the top. He managed a small blink just as the kettle started bubbling loudly, and, with jerky movements, he flicked the switch to turn the object off, setting about the task of pouring two mugs of coffee.

'_God, my mornings have become repetitive,' _Sora thought as he stirred the instant coffee and water together, watching with a detached boredom as the water turned a murky brown.

It had been much the same ever since the dreams had started. Well, scratch that; not since they had started, but rather since they had taken a dark turn from following the simple life of a teenage boy and had instead started showing Sora the rather depressing life of a traitor to the crown and well-known war criminal. But since that time, Sora had been finding himself getting up well before his usual time with a startling increase in frequency.

Cloud was getting worried.

But not only Cloud; even Riku had started enquiring into his well-being, only a week after Kairi had started. That Riku had cared enough to drop his façade of 'extreme bastard' for long enough to ask if his best friend was feeling okay was a sheer sign of how bad Sora's problem was becoming. Riku was, after all, the biggest prick in school.

These thoughts blurred through Sora's mind as he lifted Cloud's cup and carefully made his way up the stairs to his older brother's room (Sora had a sneaking suspicion that his usual clumsiness would only be exemplified by his newfound constant exhaustion: he was right, but he'd yet to be proven so).

With a soft knock, Sora pushed Cloud's door open and made his way inside.

Making use of his mind map of Cloud's bedroom, which he so desperately needed considering the fact that the floor was absolutely littered with Chocobo plushie's of varying sizes (mostly joke gift's from Cloud's friends and Sora himself) and the room itself was pitch black, he inched towards the bed, barely making a sound due to the thickness of the rug covering the floor.

"Cloudy?" Sora whispered, setting the steaming cup on his brother's bedside table.

His response was a muffled groan from within the cocoon of blankets curled up in the centre of the bed, followed by the lump rolling slightly to, Sora assumed, face away from the direction of the voice. Stuffed Chocobo plushie's spilled to the floor like an avalanche, highlighted by the scant light slithering across the floor from the barely open door.

"Cloudy?" came Sora's giggled repetition. "It's six. You gotta get up."

Despite the humour with which Sora spoke to his brother, inside, he was frowning. He had always hated that Cloud had to get up so early simply so he could go to work to support both Sora and himself. Sure, Cloud never complained, but Sora often wished his brother would, if only so Sora knew that Cloud wasn't bottling his emotions up.

The sight of the ball in the middle of Cloud's bed shifting stole his attention, and Sora smirked at the sight of Cloud's head popping out of the duvet burrito, golden locks a tangle on his head. Rubbing one eye with a closed fist, Cloud yawned, before reaching blindly for his phone.

Without even opening his eyes, Cloud managed a mumbled, "Again, Sora? Are you gonna be able to manage school today?" as his fingers grabbed his phone off the table beside his bed. He let out a small hiss of air between his teeth as he checked the time, blinking his eyes rapidly as the light burned his retinas.

"Oh, I'll be fine Cloudy. If you can do it, I can do it. No big," Sora said, as he watched his brother roll off the bed to land beside him, before he swiped his coffee up and gulped a mouthful. Sora cringed at the mere thought of having coffee the second he had woken up, but he forgave his, admittedly weird brother, his oddities, as long as it kept him functioning properly.

Sparing a quick glance at his brother, Cloud made his way over to his dresser, rifling through the messily folded laundry inside before tugging out an outfit for the day that didn't look too crumpled.

"Well…. If you're sure. I mean, you can totally stay off if you need to," Cloud said, standing up and making his way from the room, clothes in hand, Sora plodding after him.

Sora split from his brother in the hallway with an, "I'm sure," before heading back to the kitchen to make some toast whilst Cloud was in the shower.

Ten minutes later, Cloud wandered into the kitchen running a towel through his hair. He offered Sora a smile as he picked up his toast that had nothing but a light coating of butter spread on it.

"How you getting to school today?" Cloud questioned between nibbles of his breakfast, as he took a seat at the island across from Sora.

"Riku."

"Oh, so Riku can drive now?" Cloud teased, a small smile on his face. Sora rolled his eyes in response.

"His brother is giving me and Riku a lift."

Cloud's smile widened slightly at that piece of news, and Sora quirked an eyebrow in response. "Which one?" Cloud's tone was too nonchalant, and Sora's eyebrow climbed even higher up his forehead, and he found himself fighting a smirk.

"Not Sephiroth," he said, ignoring Cloud's spluttered denial, "Kadaj. Spehiroth has to stay at home to look after Ienzo today. The other two are away… somewhere. School trip. I think Riku said something about going to Nautilus."

Cloud, after regaining his composure from his coughing fit, let out an impressed whistle, choosing to ignore Sora's teasing remarks. "Nautilus, huh? Man, it's been ages. But it's been even longer since we've been to the Golden Saucer," at that, a nostalgic smile slipped onto Cloud's face, and Sora busied himself with eating his toast. "Hey, if I can find the lifetime family pass in the attic, you wanna go sometime soon? You can bring a few friends. The pass is good for eight people I think."

Sora froze mid-bite, eyes shooting up to lock with his brother's. He studied the expression on Cloud's face for a full minute, but he didn't find any hint of sadness. "Yeah. If you're sure I mean. We've not gone since…." Sora trailed off, but Cloud's expression didn't change at all, that small smile still fixed on his face.

"I'm sure. We'll go in three weeks time, yeah? Your school's taking a week off then, isn't it?" Cloud asked, as he stood up and washed his cup and plate. Sora quickly jumped up to help, a massive smile lighting up his face.

"Okay. Yeah! It'll be great! I'll ask Riku and Kairi if they wanna come. This is gonna be wicked! Thanks Cloud!" Sora cheered, wrapping his arms around his brother in a quick hug, before grabbing the washed dishes out of Cloud's hands so he could dry them. Cloud simply watched in amusement, before shaking himself and glancing at his watch.

Cloud muttered, "Half six. That's about time," seconds before there was a loud knock at the front door, and then the subsequent sound of a key being turned in the lock. From his place by the cupboard, Sora smiled.

"See you later Cloudy," Sora said brightly, moving out of the way of the entrance to the kitchen just as a large, tanned ball of energy flung itself through, missing Sora by mere inches.

"Spiky!" came the ecstatic yell from the tall man as he bundled up Cloud in a massive hug. "I've got awesome news, yeah? I'll tell you in the car! Come on!" Cloud barely had a chance to protest as the other man gripped his wrist tightly and started dragging him towards the front door.

"Hey Zack," Sora chirped brightly as he, again, stepped back to let the taller male drag his poor brother away.

"Oh, hey So! Didn't even notice you there! Have fun at school!" Zack yelled all of this in one breath, managing to work in a ruffle of Sora's wild spikes as he did, barely leaving Cloud enough time to do the same. Sora caught a, "if you change your mind and need to stay home that's fine!" from Cloud, before the front door closed with a slam.

Shaking his head with a smile, Sora set about continuing to get ready for school, which consisted of showering, brushing his hair (or attempting to), and revising for the Literature test he had at the end of the day on 'The Great Gatsby'.

* * *

**A/N: **Incredibly short first chapter, I know. I plan to lengthen them (unless you like them short), as I go. This is really just a test until I can get myself going properly.

And if anyone's interested in being my beta, please tell me! I'm in desperate need of one, owing to the fact that I don't proofread. I'm too embarrassed to read over my own work.


	2. My Friends Are My Power

**A/N: **Welp! Here's this chapter. A bit longer, but not by much. All I really want to say is, don't expect this fast update time for every chapter. This is me, postponing the revision I should be doing in preparation for my A Levels.

Also, thank you my reviewer, who pointed out my slip-up in tagging the pairings! Since I hadn't uploaded a story since the good ol' days of no pairings and only two characters, I found myself focusing more on learning how to tag the pairings than what pairings I was actually tagging. So thanks!

**Warnings: **None. Except for gay teens being stupid and Kairi suffering because her gay teens are being stupid. Poor Kairi.

* * *

Chapter Two

"My Friends Are My Power."

Let it never be said that Sora Strife was in any way stupid. Just because he found himself completely incapable of memorising quotes to do with the destructive nature of the old money class and how the capitalist society of 1920's America crippled its people, didn't mean he was an idiot. Sora simply preferred to analyse all of the ways in which Gatsby and Nick were most likely having an affair behind the scenes of the numerous affairs already taking place. Not that Sora would ever admit to something like that; Riku and Kairi teased him enough about his crush on Marlon Brando- not that he even had a crush on Marlon Brando, or had ever thought about Marlon Brando in such a fashion (Sora didn't care if Riku had heard him moaning the actors name at a sleepover the night they had watched 'A Streetcar Named Desire' in his Literature class; it simply wasn't true).

But, regardless of the issue of Sora's sexuality, Sora was having an incredibly hard time focusing on his set task at his place curled up on the sofa in his sitting room, and he was all too eager to shove his well-worn copy of 'The Great Gatsby' into his bag at the sound of a car horn from outside.

Rushing to the front door and tugging on his shoes in the hallway, Sora shot a smile over his shoulder at the duo waiting for him as he locked up behind himself, before turning to catch his ride.

The immense wealth of the Crescent family could be summed up with a simple look at their car (or, their one of many cars, as Sora was loathe to admit, considering Cloud and Sora didn't even own one themselves). Sora wouldn't call himself an expert on cars, but one look at the thing, practically glistening in the summer sun, with its silver sheen and convertible-ness (Sora _really _wasn't good with cars), practically screamed to any bystander that the owner of the car was filthy rich and didn't care about blowing their money on frivolities, such as the black leather upholstery (Sora made a mental note to use the Crescent's car as an example in his next essay on whether the themes in 'The Great Gatsby' were still applicable to a modern audience).

Further inspection of the vehicle would lead one's wandering eyes to the occupants sitting inside the expensive monstrosity.

The drop-dead gorgeous occupants.

The slimmer, taller of the two sported shoulder length silver hair, and fine, delicate features. He looked fragile, but the haughty expression on his face told every innocent bystander that he was definitely not somebody to mess with: sure, a ten year old girl could beat him in a fight, but that ten year old girl would soon find herself slapped with every lawsuit known to man, age be damned. His name was Kadaj, and he was the third youngest of the Crescent children, and, possibly, the most spoilt of the lot of them.

The other occupant of the car, the one turning to grace Sora with the shittiest shit-eating smirk to ever grace the face of any person currently alive or dead on the planet (save, maybe, Cloud's friend Genesis, but he was a whole other story of pretentious hipster douche, so whatever) was Riku.

Riku, with his perfect, gorgeous face, his perfect, piercing teal eyes, his perfectly aligned, perfectly white teeth, his perfect short, silver hair (which Sora much preferred to the long style Riku had sported all throughout his early teens), and his perfect body, with its perfect muscles that, whilst not huge, certainly showed that he worked out often. And perfectly.

Sora, of course, offered Riku a large smile, rather than a rundown of just how _perfect _he found the older teen, but that was to be expected. Like most fifteen year old boys, Sora was content to let himself believe that his inner monologue over the beauty of his best friend of ten years was simply healthy admiration. Riku was his 'bro' after all; a sentiment to which Riku wholeheartedly agreed (despite Kairi's insane giggling every time the word 'bro' was mentioned: Sora refused to ask her why, feeling that it really was better just to not know).

Sora made his way to the car and, refusing to embarrass himself by attempting the smooth, one handed jump over the car door he often witnessed the Crescent brothers pulling off, he simply opened the back door and settled in to the plush leather of the seats, sighing in contentment.

Riku turned his head, directing his full attention towards Sora, draping an arm over the back of the car seat. Inner-Sora huffed in annoyance, taunted with the knowledge that he could never make such a simple manoeuvre look as good as Riku did, especially with the sun glinting off his hair the way it was, causing it to shine moon-beam white; never mind the fact that, when teenage hormones were subtracted from the equation, Riku's turn in his seat was just that: a turn in his seat. Thankfully, Sora had never witnessed Sephiroth do the same thing to pin you with his gaze, or Sora might have found himself vying with his brother for Sephiroth's attention, as Sephiroth was well known throughout Twilight Town to be the sexiest piece of ass in the country.

But Sora's point of comparison was Tidus swivelling in his chair in class to favour unsuspecting (and undesiring) ladies with a corny wink, so Sora can be forgiven.

"Sora, you look tired," Riku's voice wrenched Sora from his cluttered thoughts, and he quickly picked up on the hidden notes of worry that Riku attempted to bury beneath layers of apathy. Kadaj smirked from his place in the driver's seat as he took a turn, but it went unnoticed by the two younger males, who were busy playing the 'I-don't-care-about-you game', as teenagers, especially boys, are wont to do.

"I was up early," Sora replied simply, attempting to ignore the way Riku's eyes were burning a hole in his face as he watched for any flicker of something amiss.

"You been having those dreams again?"

Before Sora could respond, Kadaj leapt in, "Marlon Brando, huh?"

The car went silent as Sora (and Riku) processed what Kadaj had just said.

Finally, Sora spluttered out an angry, "Riku!" just as Kadaj dissolved into hysterics (controlled hysterics however: Sephiroth would kill him if he damaged the car in an accident, and he had just bought his outfit, so ruining it with blood and glass and bits of debris wasn't really at the top of his to-do list. Pissing off his brother and his little friend, however? Oh yeah, was that _way _up there).

Riku shot his laughing brother an angry glare, before he tried masking his lack of composure with a grin. "Sorry, So. It just slipped out by mistake."

Most people would be able to tell that Riku truly was sorry, and that his confession was the truth: that it had simply slipped out during one of the moments when his older brothers got together to play the game favoured by all older siblings everywhere: annoy your younger brother enough that he has no choice but to admit to something embarrassing in the interest of being left alone.

However, as is a well-known fact, teenage boys aren't most people, and Sora was too busy wallowing in his own self-pity to pick apart his best friends words. He, instead, pouted at the older boy, before turning his head away to ignore him.

Riku sighed, sitting back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest (in a way that was _so _not huffy, but rather, darkly mysterious. Totally), a dark frown on his thin lips as he glared at his brother out of the corner of his eyes.

Kadaj was too busy trying to find a station that played dubstep to really care.

* * *

Kairi was in the middle of a rather heated debate on the pros and cons of buying used videogames and its impact on the gaming industry as a whole, when she caught sight of Sora storming into the classroom, followed by a sheepish Riku. Kairi flashed Selphie an apologetic smile, which the smaller girl simply laughed at before waving the redhead away- she had obviously caught sight of the same thing her friend had.

Now Kairi was an incredibly observant young woman. She often found that she _had _to be, with best friends like Sora and Riku. So, when Kairi said Sora stormed in, she wasn't really being literal. Sora arrived in the classroom the same way he did every morning: with a large smile and a loud, bubbly 'hello', which only a third of their exhausted classmates made any attempt at returning. His 'storming' came from the light curl of his fists and his lack at attempting to get Riku to conjure up some form of greeting to the class as well, an act which caused no lack of bickering between the two every single morning.

Likewise, Riku's 'sheepishness' wasn't something that was readily apparent, because, as Kairi had heard at least a hundred times 'Crescent's are never wrong, so they never have any cause to be sheepish' (where the younger Crescent boys got these silly notions, Kairi would never guess. She had met both Lucrecia, their mother, and Sephiroth, their oldest brother, on multiple occasions, and both were absolutely lovely people: although, Kairi supposed that what went on behind closed doors was something she'd most likely never be privy to). Riku's 'sheepishness' came from the slight angling of his head: instead of having his nose slightly upturned, it was instead pointed ever so minutely towards the floor.

Inner-Kairi sighed, wondering just what silly things her boys had argued over this time.

Outer-Kairi grinned as Sora and Riku sat down on either side of her, clearly intent on continuing their passive-aggressive argument for the rest of the day, at least. The longest standstill in their friendship, that Kairi could remember, had lasted a week; a week that Yuffie had happily dubbed 'Winter's Week' (she had even made celebratory banners for when the feud had ended, and still nobody had managed to figure out how she had gotten one hanging well above the entrance doors of the school, on the third floor, on the _outside _of the brickwork building).

"So," Kairi sing-songed, positively _relishing _in the glares both of her best friends sent her way (they knew from her tone that she was about to start stirring some serious shit, and Kairi, being the best friend that she was, was completely ecstatic to be pissing them both off), "who stole whose MuscleMag this time?" Kairi had to fight to keep her smirk to the safer levels of a smile as both boys glares intensified, and Kairi knew that if she had been a weaker person, she would have shrivelled up into a dried out husk ages ago. Dealing with her idiot boy's had gifted her with nerves of steel however, and she simply turned her head to gift Riku with a smile.

Riku kept his glare steady. He would not lose to a midget redhead with a superiority complex (never mind that Sora was only an inch taller than Kairi's 5"2' frame, and Kairi had never had such an attitude before she had met Riku). And he would certainly not let Kairi know that he was still deeply scarred over the fact that his older brother Yazoo, in a fit of spite, had told her that Riku and Sora's week long falling out had all occurred due to the fact that Riku had thought Sora had stolen his copy of 'MuscleMag', when it had really been Loz, one of his other older brother's, who, as Yazoo had pointed out in his usual 'holier-than-thou' fashion, was _actually_ using it for its intended purpose. Namely, building muscles. Kairi had been unable to look at him for _days _without bursting into laughter.

Kairi simply raised an eyebrow at him, before sticking her tongue out at the taller teenager, her blue eyes radiating happiness at his expense. She turned to Sora, intent on poking fun at him too, before freezing, her smile slipping from her face faster than money slipped from her purse and into the hands of gaming corporations. So, pretty damn fast.

"Sora, you look awful," Kairi hissed, keeping her voice down so that none of her nosy classmates could poke their noses in. She could see Yuffie at the other side of the room, shooting her suspicious glances, obviously noticing her sudden mood shift.

Sora blinked stupidly, thrown off by his best friends comment. His frown twisted into a grimace, and he shrugged, noticing Riku sitting up straighter over the top of Kairi's head, his pride taking a battering as his worry for Sora won out. "I'm fine. Just tired."

Kairi looked unsure, and she opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by the door to the classroom smashing open, their teacher, Cid Highwind storming in, an annoyed expression on his face, though that wasn't exactly something new.

Despite rumours to the contrary, Cid was actually an incredibly funny man, who adored teaching and, as long as you behaved in class, was happy to spend extra time after hours discussing problems that you might not have understood during class itself.

However, Cid was quick to lash out with detentions and lines if you talked during homeroom, mainly because, not only was Cid himself just awake, but Cid believed that the register was one of the most important aspects of the school day. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence to hear Cid's booming voice ricocheting down the long school halls as he explained to a hapless pupil the importance of the morning register in case of a fire or some other emergency, that meant that teacher's needed to know if a student was absent, or if they weren't with the rest of the class huddling outside of the burning building because they were, in fact, trapped within the burning building itself.

So, despite her misgivings, Kairi closed her mouth and leant against her desk as the rest of the class did the same.

* * *

As soon as Mr. Highwind had finished going through the register, Yuffie Kisaragi made a beeline to the trio at the back of the room, who were gathering up their bags.

Usually, Yuffie would stay behind for at least five minutes to bug Mr. Highwind (or, as Yuffie called him, 'Ciddy') about why there were so many men named Cid in Twilight Town. Yuffie had counted well over thirteen, and only one of them was young and hot, a lovely Mister Cid Raines, who had recently moved down the street from her. Ciddy had never given her any type of answer, and her search for _why_ had never given her any solid evidence to support her theory that they were robots hell-bent on destroying the good ol' Town of Twilight; that, or they were all from alternate realities and had all been drawn together at the sick whim of some creepy loser somewhere who wanted to control the lives of all those around her. But, if that were the case, then Yuffie herself would be nothing more than some freak's cosmic plaything, so she usually forgot that idea as soon as it forced its way back into her head.

But, Yuffie put that to the back of her mind. Today was not a day for bugging Ciddy, as loathe as she was to admit it. Today was a day for bugging 'Dumb, Dumber and Not-Really-Dumb-But-Still-Kinda-Dumb-For-Hanging-Out-With-Those-Two-In-The-First-Place', or, as Yuffie liked to say 'DDaNRDBSKDFHOWTTITFP', which she had never actually said out loud before, but she imagined it would sound as majestic as everything she attempted to say.

Kairi looked up just as Yuffie arrived beside them, giving the smaller girl a tiny smile, which Yuffie returned as a blinding grin.

"Yola guys! What up? None of you look very happy, which shouldn't be the case, considering you're in the same room as _me_, the White Rose and Princess of Wutai!" Riku pinned her with a glare, but the Great Yuffie would not be held down by something as simple as a look (no matter _how _threatening that look actually was) and Sora simply shot her a funny look. Sora had been shooting her funny looks since they'd first met actually, which Yuffie had always considered kind of rude when it was a fact known by many throughout the school that Sora was only a few steps down the 'Weirdo Ladder' from Yuffie herself.

Maybe it had something to do with their first meeting. The green chocobo and the glue and Sephiroth's hair had probably been a bit much for the poor boy: Gaia knows Cloud still turned a bit green when he saw her in the streets.

But, whatever the case, Yuffie didn't actually care. Weird looks were a staple of Yuffie's life: if she could live off weird looks, she'd sure as hell be saving herself a good bit of gil.

"Nothing Yuffie. Sora and Riku are just being big babies," Kairi teased, as the four teenagers walked out of the classroom, Cid staring wearily at Yuffie's back as she left, probably terrified she would turn back around for a discussion on how he was manufacturing Cid robots in his garage.

Yuffie turned to face the trio, walking backwards with the utmost confidence that everyone walking in her direction would clear a path for her, despite the fact that she could barely be seen in all of her 4"11' glory, but whatever. She was Yuffie Kisaragi thank you _very much _and her mere presence likely took up more than Twilight Town (or, her ego did. Whichever it was, it was impossible to miss her) and the path she expected to be cleared for her _was_ cleared for her, mainly because people didn't want to deal with the infamous trouble maker so early in the morning on a Monday.

Yuffie's grin was absolutely massive as she said, "Do Riku and Sora ever act like anything _but _big babies?" The reaction was immediate, and Yuffie and Kairi shared a grin.

"Like _you're _one to talk!" Riku snapped.

"I do _not_!" Sora cried.

It seemed that Sora and Riku's mini falling out had dissipated with a new target to take their ire out on.

'Which is a damn shame,' Yuffie mused as both boys rounded on her, 'I already had a name picked out for this argument and everything. 'The Global Meltdown.''

* * *

By the time lunch had arrived, Riku and Sora were acting as though the morning's events had never happened. Unfortunately, Kairi had somehow managed to prise the truth of the mornings events out of them both. This meant that, regularly throughout the day, in any class either boy shared with the mischievous redhead, the name 'Marlon Brando' would inevitably be hissed into the silence of the room at one point. Unfortunately, Yuffie, Selphie and even Tidus had seemed to cotton on to what exactly that meant, after the third time Sora had flushed crimson and buried his head into his arms on his desk, regardless of the teachers' glares. Riku's snickers, when he was present in the class, really didn't help Sora at all.

Which is why, when Sora joined his friends for lunch, three different voices chorused 'Marlon Brando' at the exact same time. Luckily none of them were Riku, as a further argument just wasn't worth it. However, if Sora's tray hit the table hard enough for some of his fries to fly across the table, well, he couldn't really be blamed.

Eventually the boisterous table quietened slightly. It was the only time the majority of them ever were quiet, but food was important and, since their school wasn't quite hell on earth, the cafeteria food was actually pretty good. It wasn't five star, to which Riku could and would attest, but it got the job done with little complaint.

The group made light conversation, Selphie talking at Kairi about her Karate instructor Auron, as Kairi nodded and 'mmm'd' at all the correct moments as she ate her lunch. Yuffie was attempting to snap Tidus out of his trance which consisted of staring at Yuna, the pretty girl in their year who, despite her rather withdrawn nature, often found herself as the lead in a variety of school productions. The expression on Tidus' face could only be described as _simpering _which Yuffie was certainly not comfortable seeing as she ate her burger.

Riku and Sora were doing what they did every lunch: they were discussing whether or not Cloud was _in love _with Sephiroth, or if he was _in lust _with him. Oddly enough, it was Riku who insisted that Cloud wanted nothing more than to have the whole fancy wedding-do with Sephiroth, whilst Sora was adamant that Cloud was simply still fantasising about his high school days, where Sephiroth had been a young student teacher who Cloud had sometimes had the pleasure of drooling over for an entire lesson. Not that he'd been alone in this, but Cloud had had the encouragement of both Zack and Aerith, which had somehow planted and rooted the obsession deep within his mind.

Their deep conversation was interrupted by a loud exclamation of 'Oh yeah! I almost forgot!' from Kairi, that had Tidus almost falling off his seat, had Selphie not caught him.

Yuffie looked up, cheeks bulging with half-chewed food. "Forgot wash?" she slurred through her mouthful, and Riku shot her a glare at her complete lack of refinement.

"My brother's coming home. You guys have never met him! I always go visit him," Kairi's eyes were practically glowing with excitement, and Riku felt his glare slip from his face to be replaced with a fond smile. Sora's look mirrored his.

Kairi's older brother was a mystery to many. The Serafino family was a tight-knit group, and both Sora and Riku had only met Kairi's parents, Rosso and Weiss a total of three times. Each meeting had been a brief, terrified affair, as both Kairi's parents were rather threatening people, whether they meant to be or not (they totally meant to be). Nobody in Twilight Town had ever seen Kairi's mysterious brother however. Kairi had told them often that he was living all the way in Midgar with her uncle Nero and his children Arc and Refia, who Sora and Riku had also never met.

It was obvious, however, that Kairi absolutely _adored _her older brother. Every time she went out to Midgar to visit him, she came back quiet. Her silence would always last for a few days before she got over it, but it was obvious that she missed him greatly during their times apart. For that reason, she rarely ever mentioned her big brother.

It was also for that reason that Sora couldn't remember Kairi's brother's name, but Kairi was talking too quickly for him to get a word in.

"He actually let me take a picture of him on my phone. He never liked the thought of me showing him off to my friends before, but he figured that if he was coming home, it didn't really matter much," Kairi was saying as she dug through her handbag to find her phone. "Here we go…. and…. here!" Kairi cheered, as she cycled through the images on her phone to find the one of her brother.

The table clamoured for a look. Kairi's brother, after all, was somewhat (in)famous. From the scant few things Kairi had said about him, it seemed the reason he lived in Midgar was due to certain…. tendencies he had, that had gotten him kicked out of school in Twilight Town. The main issue had been something to do with fire, and vandalising a teacher's car with his best friend who, coincidentally had also left town. The reason Kairi had given for her brother leaving and not the rest of the family was that it had simply been impossible for her mother and father to find room to move into Midgar. The recent influx of people moving in from Cocoon due to the dodgy moves their local government had made had forced thousands to relocate, and Midgar was the prime destination. Since Kairi's uncle had the room, he had offered to let his nephew stay with him, on the condition that he behave around Nero's twins, the older girl Refia and the younger brother Arc.

He had obviously agreed as he had moved out not soon after that.

This information flew through Sora's head, before Kairi thrust her phone into his face, and he fumbled to catch it before she decided to actually smack him with the thing to get him to pay attention.

He gave her a warm smile, which she returned before he focused his attention on the phone in his hands.

His stomach convulsed.

His throat ran dry.

His heart felt like somebody had rammed a long, thin needle through it.

"I can't wait 'till you two can see him! Lea's really excited to finally meet you both!"

* * *

**A/N: **Cliffhanger, I guess? I'm sorry and stuff. Although you guys probably saw that coming.

Also, I apologise for my writing style. I'm pretty sure it changed greatly from the first chapter, but I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. I'll probably go back and edit that first chapter so it's less shitty later. (Unless this writing style is the shitty one. Then I'm sorry.)

Still looking for a beta, if anyone's interested!


	3. I've Been Having These Weird Thoughts

**A/N: **Oh yeah. I should _really _be revising. But whatever. I don't care. I'm all good. Sure, I get the feeling I've totally failed my first exam, but... pfffff. I don't give a shit.

And, a huge, massive thanks to **Mystic Pendulum **for their lovely review! It was lovely to see, and please, I'd adore hearing some of your theories! I'm also happy to see you like my writing style! You don't know how much that means to me. It's been years since I've written purely for fun, and this writing style is certainly a new one, but it's nice to see you're enjoying it.

**Warnings: **Talk of boners, because teenage boys are stupid. There's also a small description of violence involving a car accident towards the end. So please make a note of that.

Apart from that? Nothing! On with the chapter!

* * *

Chapter Three

"I've Been Having These Weird Thoughts."

Have you ever had the feeling of falling?

It creeps up on you whilst you're drifting off, and tilts your world on its axis, jerking you roughly from your slumber.

That exact feeling swept through Sora like rushing water as his eyes gazed at the picture of a mischievously smiling redhead boy.

Sora could feel pressure in his lungs, as though he'd been holding his breath underwater for longer than he was capable of.

Time seemed frozen around him.

His eyes stung.

"Axel," he whispered reverently, in a voice that wasn't entirely his own.

Trembling fingers lightly traced the outline of the redhead's sharp features, and Sora started with the realisation that his body had moved without his command.

His sudden movement seemed to jerk the world around him back into motion, and Sora felt his friends' eyes burrowing into him.

"Who's Axel?" Sora heard Tidus mumble from the other side of Riku.

Placing the phone on the table slightly harder than was strictly necessary, Sora, stood up from his chair so fast the thing clattered to the floor, ignoring Kairi's cries for him to be careful with her stuff.

The entire room had gone silent at Sora's abrupt action.

Sora felt oddly trapped under the hundreds of pairs of eyes, his chest tightening further at the probing feeling of accusation within his peers' stares, as though this was something he had been forced to go through before.

An image of a stake flashed through his head.

The tall wooden structure was on fire.

Sora clutched his head, the thought stabbing at his brain like an ice pick.

He took an unsteady step back, ignoring Riku as the taller boy snapped his hands out to steady his friend.

He refused to look at any of the others as he managed a rushed "I'm going to the toilet," before he turned his back and fled from the cafeteria, ignoring the hushed murmurs that started up as soon as the doors swung closed behind him.

* * *

Sora stared at himself in the dirty mirror, reflection slightly distorted by the thick layer of dirt caked upon its surface.

The restroom he had chosen was deserted, being one of the smaller, filthier ones available in the school.

He counted himself lucky as he wiped tears off his flushed cheeks.

The poor boy could see no reason why, exactly, he had broken down during lunch, or why, for that matter, it had seemed for a moment as though he had been floating outside of his own body, outside of the events happening around him, as he stared in awe at the figure on Kairi's phone.

_Axel._

For the boy, Lea, Kari's older brother, _had _been Axel.

He had the same, untamed, red spikes atop his head.

The same pale, flawless skin.

The same thin, chapped lips.

The same passionate, fiery green eyes.

The only difference had been Lea's lack of upside, triangular tattoos, which Axel sported just beneath his eyes.

He forced the thought from his head, focusing, instead, on his red rimmed eyes.

That was real.

That was grounding.

He was snapped from his musings as the door behind him opened slowly.

Sora caught Riku's steady, sharp stare in the mirror.

The door closed behind the silver haired teen with a muffled thump.

"What was that about?" Riku questioned.

The older boy had the talent of ignoring Sora's tears when his friend obviously did not want his break downs to be acknowledged.

Turning to face him, Sora's lips thinned as he frowned slightly in confusion.

"I don't know."

Riku stared at him steadily, face empty of emotion as he attempted to pick apart Sora's expression for any signs of defeat.

After a moment of silence, Riku smirked, and Sora's frown turned into a grimace.

"Wait 'till I tell Kairi you were crying in the toilets," Riku snorted, as he pushed the door open, waiting for Sora. He could tell from the slump of his friend's shoulders that he didn't want to talk about what in Gaia's name had happened in the cafeteria.

Splashing his face with water to clear it of any tear tracks, Sora managed a muffled, "Don't you _dare _Riku!"

As he turned to follow his friend, Sora missed the way his own eyes flashed electric blue.

* * *

Kairi was worried.

This was not an unusual mind set for Kairi to be in. The poor girl ended up worried at least once a week with Riku and Sora for best friends.

However, Kairi believed she had met her quota for the week. In fact, Kairi had the feeling that she had not only met her quota, but she had also beaten it in an alley and rifled through its pockets for spare change before leaving it to bleed out on the ground.

In other words, Kairi was exhausted from worry.

And it was only Monday.

Kairi did not like to pry into her friend's business. She knew from experience that both Sora and Riku would shoulder their own burden for as long as possible before they buckled under the stress and spilled their secrets to her.

And it was always to her. Despite the fact that their friendship was equal between the three of them, Kairi was the better listener, and much better at giving her boys advice than her boys were at giving advice to each other (which Sora had learnt the hard way at thirteen, when Cloud had lost his job and Kairi had not been in town to talk to. Riku had simply told him, "a job is _not _that important." Damn rich people).

But, as Kairi stood against the wall outside a particularly disgusting boys' toilet, she had the sinking suspicion she wouldn't be able to help Sora with his problems this time.

She wasn't quite sure why this was either. But there was something about Sora's recent nervousness, his twitchiness, which told Kairi that Sora's problems were too serious for her to deal with on her own.

Sure, she would help him in any way she could, but she knew that wouldn't be enough.

Not this time.

She glanced at her phone, clenched in her rapidly warming fist.

The image of her brother smiling back at her was still on the screen.

With a small frown, she moved back to the home screen.

* * *

Riku let Sora walk under his arm as he held the door open for the smaller boy, flicking a concerned look at his back.

He shook his head at Kairi over Sora's spiky hair, and the girl sighed surreptitiously.

Sora, thankfully, didn't notice the small exchange, too busy looking around for any sign of other students.

Finally, he turned his attention to Kairi and, without preamble, said, "Sleepover at Riku's tonight?"

Riku immediately started spluttering, and Kairi raised an eyebrow, a smile spreading across her face.

"Are you sure?" she asked, and Riku flailed slightly.

"Yeah."

"Excuse me!" Riku snapped, and both of his friends turned their attention on him. He flinched at the sight of dual puppy dog eyes. "Okay."

Kairi and Sora grinned at each other.

"That's good. I've got some things I want to talk to you guys about."

Kairi and Riku shared a look over Sora's head as the boy walked ahead of them to lead them to their next class.

* * *

To be fair, Sora felt it wasn't right of the school to expect him to remember an entire _book, _and that was without the added stress of over two weeks of a bad sleep pattern.

He didn't understand how Riku did it. The boy was constantly sprouting quotes from 'the classics' that they had read _years ago _to this very day.

He was a pretentious douche like that.

Sora's attention kept creeping from his English paper and to Riku's broad back directly in front of him.

After the fourth time it happened, Sora was content to let his eyes remain there, although he wasn't actually thinking about Riku's broad back (thankfully. The last time he'd done that, he'd popped an embarrassing boner during History, and he'd had to flee the room without waiting for his friends. Luckily it was the end of the school day. Unluckily, he'd been forced to walk the entire way home).

He caught sight of Kairi chewing on the end of her pen in aggravation as she glared down at her paper.

It was as blank as Sora's.

But Sora's thoughts were drifting into the Nether.

He desperately wanted school to be done, so he could head to Riku's house.

Sleepovers at Riku's house were a longstanding tradition between the three friends (occasionally, other members of their group would join them, but after that event with Yuffie, the whipped cream, and Sephiroth's new motorbike, Riku had begun limiting the number of people who stayed in his house overnight). Their guardians never seemed to mind when the three would have an unscheduled one simply pop up, including if it was in the middle of the school week, or, even during the exam period.

They also didn't mind that Kairi was a girl. She had been the boys' best friend for an incredibly long time, and, as far as their guardians were concerned, it would be unfair and stupid to leave her out of the boys' fun.

The three had left all the stuff they needed for the night at each other's house. There was, in all honesty, enough that they could have moved into one another's bedrooms for a month with no worries.

However, sleepovers at Kairi's were rare as her parents were terrifying, so the boys limited their time at Kairi's house to when her parents were away, whilst Sora's room was a bit on the small side, so he tended to only invite them over when Riku's room couldn't be used for the night (which was usually down to Kadaj, Yazoo and strange images printed off the internet).

Their sleepovers were much the same as any sleepover had by any kid that they knew. They would sit up until midnight, watching movies and playing idiotic games, and, depending on whose house they were at for the night, a sibling may join them or a while.

And then, after midnight, shit would get deep.

The trio would usually sit up until three in the morning, or even later, talking about the stuff they couldn't talk about during the school day, such as their greatest fears, or matters concerning life and death.

The heaviest their discussions had ever gotten had been that time Sora, at the tender age of eleven, had broken down crying over his parents and the stress his brother had to face, raising little Sora all by himself. When they had been woken up by Sephiroth for school the next day, the three of them were in a Sora-snuggle-sandwich.

* * *

The sound of Angel's singing (or the sound of the bell, but that was the same thing to exhausted teenagers) pierced through the silence of the classroom, and student's immediately jumped to their feet, leaving their answer papers scattered across the desk for their teacher to collect.

Kairi grimaced at Sora and Riku on the way out.

"Please tell me you found that as hard as me guys?" Kairi pleaded, blue eyes wide.

Riku snorted.

Sora blanched.

"Oh crap. I forgot to write anything down."

There was a short second of silence, before Riku started laughing so hard he doubled over.

Kairi sighed.

"_Sora_."

Sora grinned sheepishly, tousling the back of his hair.

"Ah well," he muttered, before his eyes landed on the tallest teenager. "Riku, stop laughing before I kick you!" Sora snarled at Riku, watching in annoyance as the older teen straightened up, wiping tears of mirth from his face.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Let's go," Riku held up his hands in front of himself in a placating gesture, but the smirk never left his face.

* * *

Kadaj was peering at his well-manicured nails as he leant against his car, waiting for Riku and his little buddy.

His attention was broken when he heard the sound of annoyed shouting, and he groaned as he looked up.

'Oh great. He's bringing the angry little redhead with him as well.'

Kadaj simply sighed, before jumping into the driver's seat, and rolling his eyes at his brother's antics (to Kadaj, the simple act of Riku breathing the same air as Kadaj was an antic, but then, Kadaj was a prima donna).

"I take it," he practically purred (everything Kadaj did had to be done with a stage worthy flamboyance, including the act of interrupting his idiot little brother squabbling with his idiot little friend, whilst their idiot female companion giggled), "you're all coming back to my house."

Riku instantly shot Kadaj a glare (mainly because he despised it when Kadaj attempted to steal Riku's place as the main source of drama within a miles radius of Riku himself).

"Yes," he growled, green eyes hard.

Kadaj smirked back, before saying, "Well hurry it up then. I've got more important things to do than wait around here."

Sora and Kairi grinned at each other as the two brother's started snapping at each other.

"Oh yeah! Like what?"

"My workout routine, of course."

"I'll believe that when I see it, fatass!"

Sora and Kairi started sniggering as the car took off.

* * *

Sephiroth was a simple man.

He did his best for his brothers and mother.

He did his best at work.

He did his best to capture the attention of the flustered, pretty Strife boy.

He did his best to keep his temper.

But Sephiroth had learnt long ago that his best wasn't always enough.

"Yazoo!" he roared, "I don't care if you're just back! That does not give you control of the family room! Get out of there right now!"

Yazoo simply raised a condescending, silver eyebrow in response.

"No."

Sephiroth felt his jaw tense, and he took a deep, calming breath through his nose.

"Yazoo, I have bought Chocopologie truffle's for desert. If you don't get out of there _right now _you won't be getting any," Sephiroth said coldly, but his narrowed eyes and the jumping muscles in his neck spoke of just how annoyed he was.

With a long suffering sigh, Yazoo pulled himself from the massive couch, before practically dragging himself from the room.

"Now go say sorry to your brother for making him cry," Sephiroth growled as he turned back to the oven.

Ienzo nodded in agreement behind him, the tiny four year old colouring in a picture depicting one of the many Disney Princesses.

Yazoo, with another sigh, turned to the hulking Loz, who was sat at the table, a quivering frown on his handsome, masculine face.

"Sorry," Yazoo said, his voice slightly sincere.

After a moment, Loz shrugged, his dismal expression replaced by a huge smile, "S'okay!"

Again, Ienzo nodded in agreement.

Yazoo sat himself down beside his older twin, patting his shoulder gently.

The rare, blissful moment in the Crescent mansion was shattered as the front door slammed open. The sounds of arguing could be heard.

Sephiroth's brow twitched.

Yazoo smirked and Loz frowned at all the negativity in the house.

Ienzo shook his head in disapproval.

"Yeah, but I _told _you to shut up you piece of-."

"Riku!" Sephiroth chastised as he mixed the soup in front of him with a little more force than was strictly necessary, grimacing as some of it splattered his apron. "Not in front of Ienzo!"

Ienzo's slate grey eyes flickered up at the mention of his name, before he went back to colouring his picture.

Riku looked embarrassed as he entered the huge kitchen, followed by Kairi, Sora and Kadaj.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't know he was here."

Both Riku and Kadaj seemed to forget about their earlier feud as their eyes swivelled to face their youngest brother (completely ignoring Yazoo and Loz, as was the way of bitchy siblings everywhere).

"Hey little man," Riku gushed as he approached Ienzo, who stopped drawing to look up at his brother, "you feeling better now?"

Despite how callous Riku seemed, he had a massive soft spot for his little brother (although everyone who met Ienzo had a soft spot for the tiny boy), and he'd been distraught when Ienzo had been up all night, vomiting.

Ienzo nodded at Riku's question, accepting a hair ruffle from him, and lifting his arms up to Kadaj. Kadaj plucked the boy out of his chair happily, an uncharacteristic, gentle smile on his pretty face.

"Wanna go watch one of your shows Ienzo?" Ienzo, after a moment of thought, nodded.

Nobody mentioned the fact that the family room was currently out of bounds due to constant arguments over it.

Sephiroth looked over his shoulder, before offering Sora and Kairi a small, barely noticeable smile.

"Hello there. I take it you two are staying the night then?"

Offering Sephiroth a small 'hello' in return, Sora and Kairi nodded in unison.

* * *

Dinner was certainly always… a spectacle at the Crescent residence.

As Sora ducked his third flying forkful of salad, he smiled at Sephiroth.

"Oh, Cloud's doing fine. I texted him earlier saying I'd be here for the night, and he told me to tell you that he can't wait to see you again!"

Cloud, of course, had said no such thing. What he _had _said, had been something that was unrepeatable, but basically boiled down to Cloud, in Sephiroth's lap, with no clothing.

Sora had a feeling Zack had had Cloud's phone.

Sora would be right.

Kadaj elbowed Sephiroth none-too-gently in the side, a leer on his face.

Sephiroth pointedly ignored him, his expression never changing.

At the other side of Sora, Kairi was grinning as Yazoo regaled her with tales of Riku's youth.

"So then, he walks out of the changing room, all dressed up in this weird 'slutty elf' getup, and you'd never guess who he bumped into."

Kairi totally could guess, but the sight of Riku stabbing at the lettuce on his plate with all the conviction and rage of a serial killer forced her to ask, "Who?"

"Yuffie."

And bingo.

Across from Kairi, Ienzo's little head bobbed, almost as though he were fighting back a laugh at his brother's expense.

Kairi shot the little boy a quick smile, and he offered her a tiny one back.

* * *

Very soon, the trio of friends were walking up the massive spiral staircase in the front hall to Riku's bedroom.

It's been said that an individual's bedroom will offer you a better look at what said individual is like.

Riku's room, however, was practically empty. Sure, it had all the objects a bedroom should have, including a bed, a massive walk-in closet, an en-suite bathroom (well, evidently, a few things most bedrooms didn't really need) but it was mostly devoid of personal defects.

Riku's reasoning for this, went something along the lines of: "My brothers are assholes."

Sora and Kairi had never gotten a deeper explanation than that, but they knew there was a story behind it all somewhere.

They would be disappointed to find out that they would never be privy to it, as long as Riku could help it.

Upon entering Riku's massive bedroom, Sora flung himself on top of Riku's huge, circular bed, before proceeding to roll around in it and mess up the previously tidy sheets.

Riku and Kairi simply watched him fondly, both smiling as Sora popped out from the centre, the duvet now surrounding him like armour.

But Sora's serious expression caused the smiles to quickly slip from their faces.

Kairi took a step forward just as Riku closed and locked his bedroom door behind himself.

"So, what's up?" Kairi questioned as she flopped onto the bed, reclining beside Sora's form.

Riku copied her movements at Sora's other side.

Sora gazed down at his friends, and saw the worry in their eyes.

He sighed deeply.

"I have… I suppose there's something I wanna ask you both. Something that's been bugging me for a very long time. Years."

Sora's entire body radiated tension and wariness, and Kairi quickly sat up, patting the top of Sora's fluffy spikes in comfort.

"Go on then. We won't judge."

Sora tightened his blankets around himself as he collected his thoughts.

"Have you guys ever felt like there's… something… missing?"

Beside him, Riku stilled, his breathing silent. Kairi's hand froze atop his head.

"Wha-?"

"What do you mean by that?" Riku's voice interrupted Kairi's, but the small redhead didn't seem to mind, her eyes staring searchingly into the side of Sora's face.

The small brunet was staring dead ahead, right at Riku's plain, white wall.

His gaze seemed lost.

"Well, I mean… maybe not so much some_thing _as some_one_. Like… augh. I dunno how to put it."

A second passed, and then, "Take your time." Sora would never have heard Kairi's breath of a statement if the room hadn't been silent, but even then, sitting right beside her, Sora still took a moment to realise what she had said.

For a brief second, Sora felt the slightest sensation of a hand curling around his shoulder and squeezing it gently. Before he could focus his attention on it, it evaporated into nothing.

He shivered.

"Okay. I got it. Have you ever felt like someone else is meant to be beside you? Like, don't get me wrong, I love Cloud. I love him so much and I don't know what I'd do without him. But sometimes… I get the feeling that… there was meant to be someone else. Someone other than just the two of us."

Kairi opened her mouth to say something, but Sora quickly shook his head.

"I don't mean my parents either. I had this… _feeling _before their accident."

Kairi's mouth closed with an audible click as her teeth met.

The dull silence in the room was unnatural, and Sora could have sworn he heard a whisper from in front of him.

He clenched his sky blue eyes shut, and tried to ignore the stares he felt piercing him.

More than two.

More than Kairi and Riku.

It wasn't a new feeling.

Suddenly, Riku sat up, his hair sticking up at the back from where it had become mussed from the sheets.

He pressed a gentle hand against Sora's left shoulder.

Right where the strange feeling had been.

If the situation hadn't been so serious and devoid of life, Sora would have blushed at the tenderness of the gesture.

"Tell me more," Riku whispered.

Their eyes locked.

Sora did.

* * *

_At five years old, Sora felt… different. _

_Alienated._

_It wasn't like he didn't have friends. Little Sora was a cheerful, outgoing young boy, and other children seemed to flock to him, be they his age, older, or younger._

_But sometimes, late at night, tiny Sora would, on occasion, get crippling pangs of loneliness._

_He tried to tell his mama and papa, but they simply insisted he was being a silly boy: why, he had all these friends, didn't he? So there was no reason for him to feel like that._

_Sora also told his big brother Cloud._

_At the time, Cloud was ten, and, when Sora had asked him about it, Cloud had stared at Sora for a full minute, before he had stood from where he was playing his game, and walked out of the room._

_The brunet had been so disheartened by that, that he had never asked again._

_But still, that feeling kept attacking him, hanging around his shoulders like some sort of waiting spectre._

_Sometimes, Sora would find himself turning around to talk to somebody who simply wasn't there, and every time that happened, Sora would panic briefly._

_But then he would remember there had __**never **__been anybody there, and such sadness would crash into him that it felt like he had been hit by a sledgehammer, and his knees would begin to buckle._

_When he was alone, he would let himself cry._

_One day, something big happened._

_Something to convince Sora he wasn't crazy._

_He had been eleven, and sitting in the backseat of his parents car._

_Cloud was beside him, and both brothers were practically vibrating in their seats._

_They were going to the Golden Saucer, the greatest amusement park in Gaia._

_The small family had packed the essentials for the trip and were singing the 'Chocobo Song' on a never-ending loop._

_And then the world exploded._

_Later, Sora would be told that the lorry driver was drunk._

_But, at the time, all Sora knew was that, one moment he had been turning to tell Cloud a joke Yuffie had told him, and the next, shattered glass was raining down on him, and he was screaming._

_The world was turning over on itself, and Sora felt his stomach contract._

_And then, he was blinking, his body lying beside the road on an empty, grassy field._

_Cloud was beside him._

_He wasn't awake._

_In a panic, Sora lifted his head, looking for his mother and father._

_His eyes landed on their car._

_The entire thing was upside down._

_The front of it was crushed flat._

_Sora broke down sobbing, his body suddenly flaring up in pain._

_His watery eyes saw the blurry form of a lorry._

_He would find out later that the driver had had a painless death, due to the massive shard of glass that had went straight through his head._

_Less than an hour later, the police arrived, along with an ambulance. The nice man inside had offered him a shock blanket, after bundling Cloud up onto a stretcher._

_The police had asked him how both Sora and Cloud had managed to get the side of the road._

_Sora didn't answer any questions, his mind blank._

_But the entire time he had felt a hand holding his._

* * *

Sora looked up at his friends, an empty smile on his face.

"I just… I feel like there's someone else who's meant to be with me, all the time. Someone…." Sora's voice trailed off, and he took a deep, shuddering breath, fighting back tears at the memory of his parents' accident.

He swallowed.

"Like a brother."

Sora didn't even flinch at the sudden realisation.

He felt a hand holding his.

* * *

**A/N: **The Nether is from Minecraft, which I didn't know until I looked it up after writing the word. I've only played Minecraft once, for an hour, before it killed my laptop. :L

I also seem to like implications of horrifying events to do with Yuffie, various items, and poor Sephiroth. They're most likely as mentally scarring as they sound, although I'm too lazy to image what the events actually _are._

Chocopologie truffle is some rich dish that I discovered whilst looking up rich dishes. Because I know nothing about rich dishes. According to the site I was on, they cost £1,679 a pound (or $2824.08 according to the google convertor). These damn rich people.

So yeah. There's that chapter. And man, are things heating up in here, or is it just me? (It's totally just me, isn't it?)

If anyone is curious, I plan to update every week, although, with the upcoming exams, that may not be possible. This goes for all my stories (all two of them).

But there you have it. Tell me what you think.

Was it... spooky?

Did it... scare you?

Did it... upset you?

Or did you not have any reaction at all? Because that's fine too!


	4. A Light That Never Goes Out

**A/N: **Do you know what's really hard (not my peen)? Yeah, writing. God damn. There's no excuse really. I mean, sure, I've got A Levels, which is technically a really huge excuse, but whatever. Really, it's just been a terrible case of writer's block. So bad, my god. Well, anyway, sorry for the massive wait.

Moving on, thank you guys for reviews! It really makes me happy to see people have been enjoying my story! And **Mystic Pendulum **I tried to take your constructive criticism (keep it coming dude!) to heart, and attempted to fix up my writing a bit. I hope I've succeeded, although I did write most of this on three hours of sleep, so maybe not completely. But yeah, super big shout-out to all my reviewers I love you guys, you really bring a smile to my face.

Now, as I was writing this, I came to the realisation that this story is most likely gonna end up really, _really _long. When we finally get into that AkuRoku stuff... damn man. Just damn. ;P

**Warnings: **THE DREADED FLASHBACKS OMG I'M SORRY DON'T KILL ME. And general spookiness, but, apart from those, nothing. (Well, a wee bit of ooc, especially towards the end, but hopefully it's not too bad).

Here we gooooo!

* * *

Chapter Four

"A Light That Never Goes Out."

The silence that followed Sora's statement was frigid, almost enough for Kairi's words to get caught up in the back of her throat, which felt suddenly constricted. But she knew without a shadow of a doubt that what her best friend had just told her was important, and so she scooted herself closer to him, until they were both practically merged together from the shoulder to their legs.

Kairi took a deep breath, and in the silence it was enough to draw both Riku and Sora's attention.

She noticed that Sora looked shaken.

His left hand was clenching around nothing.

But it was Riku's expression that really caught Kairi's attention.

The boy's eyes were distant, seemingly looking through her at something only he could see and his lips were curled down in one corner.

He looked spooked and confused, not an expression anyone often associated with Riku.

So, despite her misgivings, Kairi started to speak.

"Lea left when I was really little, just a few weeks before I met you guys. It was about a month after my ninth birthday I think, and he was only thirteen," Sora blinked, settling his hands into his lap and playing with his fingers. Riku's gaze seemed to snap back into something more resembling Riku, and he stared at her as she spoke. She ignored the slight wavering of her voice as she ploughed ahead.

"Remember how I told you Lea had been kicked out of school for arson?" Sora and Riku shared a quick look that Kairi couldn't properly read, too focused on her thoughts, before they both nodded at her simultaneously. "Yes, well… Lea was always a bit weird about it. I mean, it's understandable, he _did _set fire to his school's outdoor sports centre, and then slash the tires on Principle Auron's car with his friend, but the excuse he tried to use to get out of it was…"

Kairi's throat seemed to close in on itself as she looked at her best friends' expectant expressions. What she was going to say might destroy their opinions about her brother, and she wasn't sure if she was equipped to deal with that. But just as her body began to stiffen, Sora gently grabbed her hand, where it had been balled up in a fist at her side. She caught Riku's eyes, and he gave her a small nod that told her all she needed to know: _'we're your best friends and we support you. We're here for you'. _She continued.

"His excuse was frightening."

* * *

_Kairi curled up in a ball on her bed, pulling her blankets tighter around herself._

_Lea had always told her that when she was frightened, or upset, or lonely, all she had to do was call for him and he would be there and he would hug her until she felt better._

_But Lea wasn't coming when she called, even though her throat felt torn from how she had screamed herself ragged repeatedly yelling for him._

_He was the reason for this, and so she comforted herself by making her blankets into a protective shield which reminded her of her brother's hugs, which were always extra comforting due to Lea's hotter-than-normal body temperature._

_She fought back a flinch as a door slammed downstairs, followed by more shrieking._

_"Lea!" came her mother's accented, angry voice. Rosso was a woman who prided herself on her cool head under any situation, but today she was screeching in anger and terror, "Lea, that's not good enough! Hey! Don't walk away from me young man! Get back here right now!"_

_A moment of blessed silence followed, before Kairi heard the sound of her brother's voice, "I told you! I only did it because **he **said I should!"_

_Kairi heard her father let out an enraged growl._

_"Just tell us who Lea!"_

_"The boy in my dreams!"_

_Kairi squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back tears at her brother's announcement. She knew what he was talking about. That strange presence he swore he could feel at all times, like someone watching him constantly._

_Kairi knew because she felt it too._

_She buried her face into her knees as an invisible hand ran its fingers through the hair on her head._

* * *

Sora was staring at her, eyes practically bugging out of his head. There was a tension in the room that felt too thick, too heavy, too suffocating. It felt as though someone had been waiting to hear her story for longer than she had even known she even had one to tell, and now that it was out in the open, the person wasn't sure how to handle the news.

"Do you still…?" Sora's voice trailed off uncertainly, but Kairi knew immediately what he was trying to ask. She shook her head.

"After Lea moved away I never noticed that presence again. But sometimes, when I go out to see him, strange things will happen. Like that time I tripped on one of Refia's toy cars and nearly went right out the second floor window. I could'a sworn somebody pulled me back. Just little things like that."

Despite the fact that Sora had just told his own tale of weird ghostly happenings, Kairi almost expected to be shot down. She knew her friends weren't cruel, but sometimes they were almost stupidly oblivious, and she had found that that was often worse.

But Sora simply continued to stare at her dumbly, whilst Riku frowned, not really looking at anyone or anything, obviously deep in thought.

Kairi noticed how dark it had gotten outside, and her eyes flickered to the clock above Riku's bed: 11:34. It was getting pretty late, and they'd been talking up in Riku's room for well over four hours. Not to mention that school was still an unfortunate institute of torture they had to go to.

But Kairi knew what they were discussing was important.

Especially when Riku looked up, pale green eyes hard, and opened his mouth.

"I've felt it too."

* * *

Riku wasn't the sort of person to share his feelings, and he rarely indulged even his family members in discussions that were in any way intimate or personal. But Sora and Kairi were special cases, and Riku would expose his every flaw if he believed it would help them both, despite his usual aloof nature.

And he knew that Sora and Kairi needed his support right now, so he would give them it.

And much more.

"It started with Ienzo."

* * *

_"Sephiroth. Ienzo's three now. Shouldn't he have begun speaking?"_

_Sephiroth glanced up over the book he was reading ('Loveless': a friend had recommended it to him), an eyebrow raised. He glanced over at Ienzo, who was staring at Riku curiously from his place sitting on the floor, obviously recognising his name._

_Sephiroth's brow furrowed, and a slightly pained look crossed his face._

_"He'll talk when he's ready, I'm sure."_

_Riku bit his lip, nodding, before crouching down beside his little brother, who shot Riku a tiny, gap-toothed grin, before he turned back to what he was doing on the floor._

_"Hey bud! What you drawin'?" Riku asked, a tiny smile on his lips as he saw the expression of deep concentration on the toddler's face. His smile grew as Ienzo held up the piece of paper for Riku to look at, but the happy expression quickly slipped from his face as he caught sight of what his brother had drawn._

_Despite his young age, Ienzo was extremely good at drawing and writing, and never before had either of these two facts been more prevalent than now as Riku took in the picture._

_His stomach twisted uncomfortably, though he wasn't sure why. He wasn't sure why he was having such an adverse reaction in the first place, but the drawing was making his pulse thunder through his veins._

_He cleared his throat in an attempt to focus himself, and looked down at Ienzo, who was staring intently at him. Riku felt another rush of emotion sweep through him. Ienzo's eyes seemed to be asking him something, and Riku felt trapped under the weight of the toddler's thousand year-old stare. He didn't even know it was possible for such a young child to look so serious._

_"You've gotten awfully quiet. What's he drawn?" Riku nearly jumped at Sephiroth's voice. For a moment, he'd been trapped in a bubble where only he and Ienzo existed, but Sephiroth's ever sharp voice had popped it with a bang._

_Ienzo held the drawing up in Sephiroth's direction._

_The oldest Crescent sibling seemed to freeze, but before he could say anything there was the distant sound of a door being slammed open, quickly followed by loud, angry screeching._

_Sephiroth got up (a bit too fast, Riku thought) to deal with his other siblings._

_Riku could have sworn he heard someone let out a breath of laugher behind him, but when he turned to investigate, all he saw was little Ienzo drawing._

* * *

"Oddly enough… I can't remember what he'd even drawn now. But I think he still has it: Ienzo keeps most things he draws, so I can try to get it tomorrow and show you. He'd be sleeping by now."

Sora's eyes were huge with wonder and confusion, and Kairi's lips were pursed.

"What do you think it all means?" Kairi muttered after a minute, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.

"Honestly?" Sora replied, looking torn. "I have no clue. Maybe we should sleep on it; see if it makes more sense in the morning?"

A quick glance at Riku's clock showed that it was a little after one in the morning, so Riku and Kairi reluctantly nodded.

The three friends quickly got ready for bed before burrowing under Riku's sheets and curling up together.

* * *

_Sora was floating in an expanse of nothing, completely unable to move. He wasn't breathing, wasn't blinking: he was doing nothing but staring dead ahead, eyes wide open and unblinking._

_Before he could panic as the realisation of his situation crept up on him, there was a flicker in front of him, and a spot of dull colour appeared directly ahead of him._

_The tiny dot was growing bigger, until it was roughly the size of a cinema screen._

_The dull orange glow flickered suddenly, before the colour brightened and swirled._

_It looked like fire, Sora realised._

_The thought lit within him a confusing mixture of emotions: love and hope being the most prominent, but there was a painful mixture of terror and desperation mingling with them that would have made Sora gasp if he could._

_Instead, all he could do was continue to stare as the image began to flicker rapidly to other images: far too quickly for him to catch anything but slight glimpses of what was happening on the 'screen'._

_He caught sight of a massive Church-like building, standing proudly atop a slight hill, overlooking what appeared to be a small city._

_Then a beach, stretching for miles as far as the eye could see. It was dark, and the stars in the sky were reflected on the still surface of the ocean in such a way that it seemed as though the sand led into the middle of the bright expanse of space itself._

_A small figure stood looking out over the water, but due to how far away it was and how fast the image flashed in and out of view, Sora couldn't make out any details._

_There was a house in ruins, a lanky redhead with their hair in a ponytail standing in front of the wreckage. Their back was to Sora, so Sora couldn't tell who it was._

_There was a large, wooden stake on a stage._

_Sora flinched, so startled, so horrified, he didn't even notice his ability to move. He also failed to notice how the image that had once been nothing more than a simple window into a different location had grown as it flickered through thousands of scenes, until it surrounded him, replacing the nothing with something._

_Until it became a shimmering reality._

_Sora took a step back, bumping into something. He risked a glance over his shoulder, face tightening in shock as he saw a massive, faceless crowd behind him, all of them silently cheering as they pressed closer to the stage._

_Pressed **him** closer to the stage._

_He forced himself to face forward again, trying to ignore the threatening mass behind him._

_The stake burst into flames just as a million voices started **screaming **at once._

_Sora collapsed to his knees as the crowd became a cacophony of noise, howling phrases he could barely catch, although he heard some words that turned his blood cold._

**_Traitors… criminals… heretics… execution._**

_Sora curled in on himself, clapping his hands to his ears in a desperate attempt to drown out what he was hearing._

_But the screaming voices simply grew in pitch and number, until Sora could no longer understand anything but what was shrieking through his mind, even as he curled his fingers into his hair, his nails biting into his skin._

_"No; if I do this, they'll let **you** go."_

_"I made a promise too."_

_"You were always so good at that."_

_"Murderer!"_

_"Scum!"_

_"They're **children**!"_

_ "Silence! Speak no more, lest these innocents believe your filthy lies and are corrupted by them!"_

_"I love you."_

_"I love you too."_

_"Ready the flames!"_

_And just as Sora thought his mind was going to unwind under the strain of __so many voices, the nothingness returned._

_But Sora could swear he heard something in the silence; the ghost of a whisper that he thought might be meant for him._

_"I'm sorry."_

* * *

Despite the chaotic, frightening nature of his dream, Sora woke up rather gradually, uncurling his limbs slowly and stretching out on the bed. At some point in the night, Riku had managed to end up with his head on Sora's stomach and his feet hanging off the mattress. Kairi was collapsed on the floor, one leg still on the bed and shirt riding up. Her hair was plastered to her face with drool.

He glanced at the clock.

Seven in the morning. Well, it certainly wasn't the earliest he had ever woken up, especially not since the dreams had started, but it did leave him with half an hour to laze around before the other two would get up.

But the image of a massive church flashed in his mind, and Sora knew that if he simply sat in Riku's bed he would end up overthinking things, so he carefully extracted himself from under Riku, laying his friends head down on a pillow. He lingered for a moment to gently brush short strands of Riku's silvery hair from his forehead before he flushed and scurried off the bed.

He draped a spare blanket over Kairi's prone figure, before he crept from the room.

* * *

Sora let his forehead rest gently against the damp, tiled wall of the shower, allowing himself to think as the feeling of water running down his back and dripping off his hair offered him a steady sort of comfort.

His dream had been different in a way that made him slightly frightened. Usually, when Sora had one of _those _dreams, it was like playing a video game through the point of view of the hero: the sort of video game with a set storyline, where the only influence you had on the events going on onscreen was keeping the character from dying.

But the dream last night… it had almost been like he was actually _there _as an observer. It had felt like if he had fought hard enough, he would have been able to change what ever was happening.

It left him feeling slightly dazed, and he wasn't sure what had caused this sudden U-turn in his dreams.

He felt like something had changed, irrevocably, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

Or a bad thing.

* * *

As Sora stepped out of the bathroom, towel draped over his small shoulders to stop water dripping from his hair onto his shirt, he almost tripped over the little figure at his knees.

Glancing down, Sora let a large smile slip onto his face.

"G'morning Ienzo! How're you? Did you sleep well?" Sora chirped, locking eyes with the youngest Crescent brother.

Ienzo nodded in reply, staring up at Sora, unblinkingly.

Sora shifted slightly, beginning to feel a tinge uncomfortable under the tiny child's probing gaze. It felt like Ienzo was seeing something Sora himself couldn't, and Sora realised, belatedly that he had never actually been alone with Ienzo before. Was this _normal _behaviour for him?

He remember Riku's tale from the night before, and swallowed audibly before edging around Ienzo, who simply continued staring at Sora.

"Erm, well… I gotta go. See you later Ienzo!" Sora called, hurrying down the hall and forcing himself not to run.

He ignored the phantom sound of slightly mocking laughter that followed him as he turned the corner.

* * *

Riku and Kairi found Sora slumped at the Island in the kitchen, lazily sucking up a smoothie from a straw, eyes distant. His hair had been dried, and he seemed in better spirits than the night before, if a little lost in thought.

Kairi settled down beside him, Riku across from him, and they both fixed Sora with a _look_: that suspicious, steely glare that all best friends seemed to manage to perfect. Sora pointedly ignored them both, sucking at his straw harder.

A clatter from behind Riku drew the trio's attention, and they all turned to see Sephiroth placing a pan down on the marble countertop.

"I see you all managed to get up by yourselves. Impressive effort, I must say. Do you all want some breakfast?" Kairi nodded politely, whilst Sora shook his head, tapping the side of his smoothie in answer.

Riku shrugged, "Depends on what you're making."

"Pancakes or a fry up."

"Pancakes," Riku answered immediately, a somewhat frightening glint entering his pale green eyes: he looked rather like a man possessed by something unworldly.

"May I have pancakes too?" Kairi asked, and Sephiroth nodded, gifting her with a rare smile.

"You could learn some manners from Kairi," he said to Riku, ignoring the boys angered splutters, and the way Kairi stuck her tongue out at Riku, as he turned back to the cupboards, his smile morphing into a grin.

After all, despite how Sephiroth was the only one of his siblings who acted like a mature adult, he still enjoyed bullying his brothers from time to time.

* * *

Sora had just finished his delicious banana and strawberry with coconut and passion fruit smoothie (a mixture that only Sora and Yuffie actually seemed to enjoy, weirdly) when his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He whipped it out and pressed it to his ear, knowing without having to check exactly who it was.

"Morning Sora. You alright?" Cloud called every morning when Sora had stayed away from home for the night because, truthfully, he was a bit of a mother hen, especially in regards to his little brother (and Zack, but Zack was a special case who had somehow managed, on three separate occasions, to get his head caught in the railings of the fence at the local park despite Cloud's insistence that).

Sora smiled gently as he answered, "Yep. Just fine. We're about to start heading out to school in a few minute. We were just waiting for Kadaj to finally drag himself out of bed," Sora ignored the annoyed exclamation of 'Oi twerp!' focusing instead on his brother's reply.

"Well that's good. Tell Sephiroth 'thanks' from me for letting you stay over."

Sora opened his mouth to, most likely, say something snarky, but he never got the chance.

_"Tell him 'thanks' yourself Cloudy! With your body!"_

This loud exclamation was followed by uproarious laughter, a muffled thump, and the laughter being replaced by choked groaning.

"_Shut the hell up Zack!" _Cloud snapped, obviously holding the phone away from his ear. "Anyway, I've gotta go. Idiot-features here is getting impatient."

"Okay. See you later Cloudy," Sora managed to keep any hints of mirth from his voice. He knew that if he offended Cloud, his older brother would probably end up making something disgusting for dinner, like that really spicy orange chicken stuff with the hot-as-the-fires-of-hell curry. Or anything _not _spaghetti.

Ew.

"Bye Sora," Cloud answered distractedly before he hung up the phone.

Sora delighted in the (almost) flustered expression on Sephiroth's face as he gave him an overly cheery 'thanks… from Cloud'.

* * *

Sora, Riku and Kairi came to a silent, unanimous agreement that discussing what they had talked about the night before in front of other people was a big no-no. Especially when one of those people was Kadaj, with his constant shit eating grin and annoying tendency to crank the rumour mill into motion.

However, this decision left the trio floundering to find a topic of conversation interesting enough to override their desire to discuss the weird things happening to them, which was, understandably, hard for them to do.

But then, Kairi got an idea.

A devious idea.

She smirked.

"So, Riku," Kairi said, studying her nails intently, mostly to hide the smirk caused by how quickly Riku whipped around in the passenger seat to narrow his eyes at her due to her tone of voice. Sora looked at her curiously. "What's this I hear about… an admirer?"

Beside her, Sora stiffened, before fixing Riku with a pointed stare.

"What?" Riku questioned drily.

Kairi dropped her hand to her lap in mock surprise. "You mean you haven't heard? But I thought… well, in all honesty, I thought it was obvious!" Kairi's exclamation was tinged with surprise, and Riku's face seemed frozen in a mask of forced annoyance, tinged with curiosity.

"What really?"  
"Really really," Kairi laughed, "I mean, you might even say that you know them well."

Finally, Sora's eyes swivelled back from Riku to face Kairi, the girl grinning hugely. His eyes glimmered with betrayal.

In the front seat, Kadaj was fighting back laughter. _God _were Riku and Sora ever oblivious. As far as Kadaj was concerned, their whiny little mutual crush was like something from a crappy teen romance novel. But at least with those Kadaj could ignore them, or sneer at them scornfully in the book store (what Kadaj didn't know was that Yuffie had, in fact, witnessed him _buying _some of the aforementioned teen romance novels, and soon the whole school would likely know. Sucks to be him). Riku and Sora, like, _existed in his personal space _and shit. And everyone bloody well knew they had the hots for each other, and everyone bloody well wished they would just _get on with it _already. Even Sora's crazily overprotective brother.

It was with fucking admirable restraint that Kadaj didn't comment when Riku snapped, "Who is he?"

* * *

Sora drifted through his school day with the usual detachment and boredom most kids muster for school. The only thing that managed to penetrate the thick fog of _'Oh Gaia boooored' _draped over him was the sound of Yuffie squealing "You'll never guess what I saw Kadaj buying the other day!" But even that wasn't enough to grab his attention for long.

What _did _manage to snap Sora out of his reverie was a piece of paper being set down in front of him in his first class of the day, empty of any writing but a massive, accusing 'F' in the corner.

Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he glanced up at Miss Gainsborough in embarrassment. He supposed that if he was going to fail so spectacularly in any class, English with Miss Gainsborough was probably the only option that wouldn't end with him as a red smear on the floor.

Aerith Gainsborough was a young, new teacher who was adored by many due to her sweet personality and beautiful looks. Sora had known her for years, as she was one of Cloud's best friends. When he had been really little, he had thought she was his big sister (although he still did: she actually thought of him as a younger sibling, but he didn't know that).

However, with his close relationship to Aerith came the knowledge that she _really _wasn't the innocent sweetheart many saw her as. Sora remembered how she had once tricked Cloud into entering a beauty contest when the three of them had gone on vacation together. A beauty contest that had involved Cloud wearing a very pretty, very revealing purple dress. Sora also remembered how Cloud had won. He also recalled how Aerith had taped the event and shown it to Zack.

She was a bit of a firecracker at times, as was definitely evident in the harsh look she was giving him as he grinned awkwardly.

"Sora," she hissed, "I know you can do better than that. See me after class."

Sora pouted.

"But for now, please bring these files to the Secretary. We're going over answers now, so people who actually answered are necessary," if Aerith had said such a thing to any other student, it probably would have been taken as bullying. But Sora could see the playful glow in her large, green eyes, and the lightening of her tight expression. He grabbed the files and headed out of the classroom.

* * *

Sora found the school to be pretty creepy when the halls were deserted and silent. The only sound was the light chatter when he was passing the occasional open door, or the muffled yelling of an angry teacher (most likely Mr. Highwind) in the distance. To get rid of the feeling of being watched, Sora quickened his pace down the hall.

For some reason, Sora sensed a feeling like tension seep suddenly through the halls like a thick fog. He shivered involuntarily at the suffocating way it settled thickly around him, trying to shake it off as he turned the corner to the secretary's office.

The secretary was tapping away at the keyboard when Sora walked up the glass divider. He noticed absently that it was raining, as he glanced outside the window over the secretary's shoulder. The sky was dark, and the rain made a gentle, rhythmic _taptaptapping _noise as it hit the window. It was pretty heavy.

The secretary looked up, mouth open, but froze when they saw Sora.

"Ah, kid. You're not who I was expecting."  
"Expecting, Mr. Kinneas?" Sora questioned as he handed the files over. Irvine Kinneas took them with a smirk that was probably not appropriate to give to an underage child, and a student to boot, but Sora simply shrugged it off, as most people tended to do when dealing with the flirtatious secretary.

"Yeah. There's a new student who shoulda been here before school started so they could get shown around and all that nonsense. But they're late. It's probably the rain."

Sora let his eyes flicker to the window again at that statement, noticing that the rain was hammering down now, and he offered Mr. Kinneas a small smile and a shrug, "You're probably right sir. Anyway, those are from Aeri- I mean, Miss Gainsborough. I better be off!"

Sora went to turn just as the door slightly down the hall from him burst open, letting in an explosion of howling wind and sharp, pinpricks of rain.

The lanky boy in the door was absolutely _drenched, _water practically pouring from him; he looked like he had a mini river running over his skin. He grinned at Sora, who was standing there in shock, before he stepped forward and let the door slam shut behind himself.

"Man is it ever kickin' up a storm out there," despite his rather sorry appearance, the boy seemed pretty upbeat, simply shaking his head, much like a dog, before making his way over to Mr. Kinneas.

Irvine, getting over his shock, offered the kid a raised eyebrow, "You must be Myde Leith, right?"  
Myde grinned widely, nodding his head over enthusiastically, "That's me!" The new boy gestured at himself with both hands needlessly, before turning back to face Sora.

His exuberant smile faltered slightly, his expression slowly morphing into one of shock that echoed the look seemingly painted onto Sora's face.

"Hey. Do I know you?"

* * *

Cloud frowned as he stared out of the window beside his desk, eyes seeing nothing as he stared, unknowingly, in the direction of his little brother's school.

Something felt _off._

He'd had this constant sick feeling curling its way through his belly all morning, but now it had spread throughout his entire body. A steady pulse, matching the beat of the rain against the window, tattooed a bruise into his brain.

Cloud was jolted out of his worried musings by arms snaking their way around his slim shoulders, and he started so badly he nearly hit whoever was behind him in the chin with his head.

"Wow Spiky. You alright?" Zack sounded faintly concerned and unusually serious. Instead of letting go, he tightened his hold on his best friend.

Cloud glanced up into Zack's face, soft, golden strands of his hair tickling Zack's cheeks gently, ignoring the strain in his neck as their eyes locked.

"It's nothing. I'm fine. It' just… something feels strange today," Cloud's voice trailed off, and he fought back a blush at how intensely Zack's eyes were scrutinising his own.

"'Strange' how?" Zack asked finally, not reacting as Cloud placed his hands on the arms Zack had looped loosely around his shoulders.

Cloud's eyes flashed with something that Zack couldn't identify. He felt a tight coil of fear settle low in his gut: he could _always _identify what Cloud was feeling, especially when it was obviously upsetting him as much as it was.

Blond hair brushed along the tip of his nose as Cloud broke their gaze, turning his head to stare out of the window again. Zack copied his actions.

"I don't know."

Zack had the sinking feeling Cloud was lying.

* * *

**A/N: **Man, I think some of you may be able to make a few more guesses after reading this chapter, but I dunno. I think I might have introduced more questions after his chapter, but Iunno *shrug*

So yeah. Next chapter, if this pans out the way I'm planning, new friends will be made, mysterious drawings will be looked at, and redheads who make Sora confused (and Riku a lil' bit jelly) will appear. So next chapter's looking to be a long one... hopefully.

Hey, did you notice this chapter was gayer than the last? I noticed that. Damn man.

This chapter also has more words than the last. But it's shorter in length. I really need to work on lengthening these things.

(PATHETIC FALLACY)

(also, if you've been wondering about my other story, 'Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On', that won't be updated until next Saturday, after my exams are over... again, hopefully.)

*will edit any mistakes later: I'm literally falling asleep at the keyboard right now*


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